Techno-goof sees New York Times offer 50% discount to 8M people across the globe

Wednesday

Dec 28, 2011 at 8:19 PMDec 28, 2011 at 8:25 PM

NewsCore

NEW YORK -- Hours after denying it sent possibly more than eight million emails to subscribers and hinting that it was the victim of a spam attack, The New York Times admitted it was behind a techno-goof that offered a 50 percent discount on subscriptions to people around the globe.

"An email was sent earlier [Wednesday] from The New York Times in error," a spokeswoman told the New York Post. "This email should have been sent to a very small number of subscribers, but instead was sent to a vast distribution list made up of people who had previously provided their email address to The New York Times."

The Times employee said, "We regret this error and we regret our earlier communication noting that this email was SPAM."

Earlier Wednesday, more than eight million Times subscribers and non-subscribers received email notices from the newspaper informing them that company "records indicate that you recently requested to cancel your home subscription."

The emails do not solicit any customer information such as Social Security numbers or personal data, but they do instruct recipients to call 1-877-698-0075 to take advantage of a 50 percent discount on a home-delivery subscription for 16 weeks.

Callers to that number either get a busy signal or a message that says, "Due to high call volume, your call cannot be completed at this time."

"We regret that the error was made, but no one's security has been compromised," Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Times Company, said in a statement.